Elena Baltacha has criticised the state of the women's game in this country, claiming Britain has been starved of success because the players are pampered.

Baltacha is not playing at Wimbledon due to a back injury - she will not return to the court until next year - but has not been slow in expressing her forthright opinions on the state of the sport.

"We have had it too easy," she said. "That's the only way of explaining it, because we have waited too many years for success.

"To put it bluntly, there are players who need help and those who don't. Because we don't have enough players playing, we try to help everyone just in case. But you look at it: coaches travelling with us, we don't pay for courts, we are pretty much getting everything, and maybe that's the problem. It's too easy."

Britain does not have one female player in the world's top 100 and it is possible Baltacha's opinions may be influenced by her eastern European experience. She was born in Ukraine and is aware of the difficulties many émigrés endure.

"A very good friend, Margit Ruutel [of Estonia], has been travelling alone since she started competing," Baltacha said. "She has no financial help and is now 170 in the world. What an achievement.

"Margit was saying: 'it's amazing what you get [from the LTA]: no one else gets that much.' Yet we still can't get into the top 100. Personally I have been trying to do as much as I can. There are a few players who do work their arses off but there are quite a lot who don't."

Baltacha also contradicted Anne Keothavong, the current British No1, who implied last week that she felt in the dark by not knowing what the LTA's new chief executive Roger Draper was attempting to do.

"Whatever changes take place it's none of our business," Baltacha said. "As long as they believe in us, and are helping us because we need to be good players, that's all we need to know. You could understand her [Anne's] feelings but we have to trust and believe in him. He's obviously got a lot of ideas and it's up to him what he wants to do with them. I strongly believe British players should appreciate the LTA far more than they have.

"It's easy to turn round and blame our culture, our parents or the LTA. We should look at ourselves first. We are in control of own destiny. It's too easy to blame other people."

Britain's best chances now lie with the nine- to 14-year-olds, Baltacha believes, who will take several years before they emerge.

Meanwhile the most promising of the existing hopes, Naomi Cavaday, a sturdy 17-year-old who gave up school last summer to compete full-time, made an ill-fated Wimbledon debut yesterday. Drawn against Ai Sugiyama, the 18th-seeded Japanese player, Cavaday was cruelly teased by spasmodic bursts of rain which delayed her great moment by 90 minutes, contributing to an anxious start.

The first four games evaporated before she began booming big forehands inside out and cross court and swerving lefty serves into the tramlines. Then, just when Cavaday had won three games to reach 4-5, there was another splutter of drizzle which made them stop, sit and stare at the sky for five minutes. At this the elements decided that the hint had not been taken and sent them packing to the locker room.